Alright, this one is no surprise, but Dell is finally officially official about its
leaked and re-leaked "Studio" laptop line. The specs are as previously stated, with a 15-inch Studio 15 model starting at $799, and a 17-inch Studio 17 model that starts at $999. What is perhaps more interesting than rehashing those laptop specs for old times sake is the new software Dell is pushing to these laptops and eventually the rest of its computers. Dell Dock is just like what it sounds, a program launcher along the lines of the OS X dock, but with some app-categorization magic and fairly extensive customization. Dell is also doing up Dell Video Chat, in partnership with SightSpeed, which integrates some rather easy-to-use video chat (powered by those integrated webcams on the Studio Laptops) with VoIP and IM for a pretty compelling alternative to Apple's iChat. In all it seems Dell's continued fascination with Apple is starting to really pay off for the end user, and those pricepoints are just as loveable as ever. Both laptops should be hitting retail in the next few days.
posted June 26th 2008 6:01AM
@Rick, you may want to look at the "Productivity Package" on the second colume at the below URL:
http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx?c=us&cs=04&id=vostrodt_410&l=en&s=bsd&~tab=bundlestab
It's rather low spec in the harddrive and and gfx card area. However, it does indeed have a 20" LCD and 80GB 7200 rpm HD, all for $779.
What are the dimensions of these notebooks? They do seem to have the same amount of power as a MBP but if they are twice as thick they arent really in the same league in terms of portablility.
See:
http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=4471
for the review
This will be my next laptop.
The fact that these laptops have no docking station or DVI out make them utterly useless to me. Also, no option for matte display.
I guess I'm waiting for the Latitude E-series to drop after all...
It has a HDMI output, what do you want else?
I'm really in love with these new laptops, stupidly there is no X3100-choice available in Germany, just the crappy ATI HD3450.
Good thing Michael Dell's advice to Apple in the '90s (give the money back to the shareholders and shut down the company) wasn't followed ... who else would he (the company) have copied for many of the recent products?
ie, Apple dissed for paying attention to engineering and design (easy hardware access, use of colour/materials/shape, etc), apparently it's OK now that Dell and other OEMs do it; many built-in laptop features first on Apple (built-in wifi, back-lit keyboard, built-in camera, scroll wheel then trackpad, now OSX Dock-like GUI & Dell trying to rush touch screen laptop to say they were first, etc.) Wonder if they'll also produce an "iPhone killer" copycat like many others?
Dell (and even HP)... the Apple wannabes :-)
(Just waiting... shouldn't be long... )
Gah, why is this thing limited to the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3450 graphics card??? I wonder how long I have to wait for a better graphics card.
So many mac idiots espousing crap as usual. Listen fools, you're just a step up from a speak and spell. Don't act like you actually know something. You own a Mac for god's sake!